Device at Sinai Hospital Helps Save Lives of Stroke Patients

Sinai Hospital has begun use of a new device that provides timely live-saving treatment for acute stroke patients. It is called the Solitaire FR revascularization device, and it is designed to minimize damage caused by blockage of an artery to the brain by mechanically removing blood clots and restoring blood flow. Recently approved by the FDA for use in patients with acute stroke, the device is especially crucial for those who arrive in the emergency room too late for clot-dissolving drugs to be administered.

Sinai Hospital has begun use of a new device that provides timely live-saving treatment for acute stroke patients. It is called the Solitaire FR revascularization device, and it is designed to minimize damage caused by blockage of an artery to the brain by mechanically removing blood clots and restoring blood flow. Recently approved by the FDA for use in patients with acute stroke, the device is especially crucial for those who arrive in the emergency room too late for clot-dissolving drugs to be administered.

According to John C. Brunson Jr., M.D., director of Interventional Radiology/Neurointerventional Services at Sinai Hospital, “Stroke often leads to long-term disability problems and even death if we do not treat it in time. Many acute stroke patients have a window of only a few hours to receive interventional treatment, so every second counts. This device gives us the ability to open up blocked blood vessels more quickly than ever before.”

Dr. Brunson recently became the first surgeon in Maryland to use the Solitaire FR to successfully treat a patient with top of the basilar artery stroke, a rare condition that almost always results in death without intervention.